1822-1890. German archaeologist. He earned a
fortune as a businessman, retiring in 1863 to
pursue his life-long ambition to discover a
historical basis for Homer's Iliad. In 1871
he began excavating at Hissarlik, Turkey, a
site which yielded the ruins of nine
consecutive cities and was indeed the site of
Troy. His later excavations were at Mycenae
1874-76, where he discovered the ruins of the
Mycenaean civilization.